Some extreme fans make a life ambition out of visiting every NFL stadium or Major League Baseball park. Me? I’m just extremely tired after a Colorado-Colorado State spring scrimmage doubleheader.
When CU beat writer Tom Kensler was drafted to cover the Frozen Four, I doubled up my usual Saturday scrimmage dose with the Frozen Two. It’s logistically possible only when one lives five minutes from Folsom Field, CU has a 10 a.m. practice and CSU slates a 1 p.m. session with the scrimmaging starting after 2 p.m.
First I arrived at Folsom, greeted by a nice man who gave out rosters and cookies to a collection of shivering sports writers. For nearly two hours the Buffs ran a fast paced scrimmage for a few hundred onlookers.
The key to the day was a 15-minute pit stop back home to walk the dog, feed the cat, nuke a bowl of soup (the extent of my culinary ability), grab another jacket and ditch the ’95 Civic for the new SUV with the heated seats.
I arrived at Hughes Stadium after the scrimmage started. None of CU’s endless supply of receivers but there was no shortage of capable running backs.
Both defenses had their moments.
CSU opened a few concession stands but the howling wind kept all but a hundred or so diehard fans from the stadium.
If there was one common link (besides the blustery cold) between the bitter rivals, it’s that “tempo” must be the new football buzzword for this year. CU players talked about picking up the tempo and running plays faster. CSU coaches have talked all spring about pushing the tempo in practice.
Maybe someone should install a giant metronome at Invesco Field when the teams meet Aug. 30 and keep score by which side plays with the fastest tempo.
Then came time to rush home, write two stories and pray to the gods of overworked sports writers not to write about any CU Rams or CSU Buffs.
It was a good day. No parking tickets at CU. No speeding tickets to Fort Collins or back.
And now I can dare all the netbuffs.com and ramnation.com contributors to whine that the other school gets better pub.